So are there still orchid growers trying to improve the flowers, or has it faded from interest? It seems such a shame, all that knowledge and effort disappearing.
I see movies or pictures from the 1950s and early 60s, and how elegantly people dressed - then came the “anything goes” era of the hippies and all formality was frowned upon. It is more comfortable to wear jeans all the time, and I realize people can’t afford fancy clothes, but people dress so slovenly these days.
No one wants to dress up any more - except at our church, the older ladies do dress up. I enjoy seeing them and try to dress respectfully. It would seem wrong to wear pants to church - I never have (well maybe at Sunday evening or other church shindigs, but not to worship service).
I guess I’m a snob too. Smile back at you.
It would seem wrong to wear pants to church - I never have (well maybe at Sunday evening or other church shindigs, but not to worship service).<<<
My feelings exactly.
On Orchid breeding, from what I can tell, once they started developing the cloning of orchids in the 1970’s, that is where they are stuck.
I ordered catalogs a few years ago and they were selling the same varieties, as we had in the 50’s and 60’s.
Then we were taught to look at a new seedling and see its line of breeding, LOL, some I still can remember.
You ordered a seedling list, to see who had bred what to what and what they expected.
Orchid seed is like face powder, a million seeds can be in a pod, and they are grown on agar in a flask.
Maybe one seedling in a thousand grown to flowering, some 5 years later, or even longer, would be worthy of being shown and granted its own plant name, which was used only for pieces of that plant.
like so many things, progress killed its continued growth.
There are over 25,000 different orchid genera, or basic types, as in Vanilla or Cymbidium, etc.
Dressing was another little project that I had to learn for Orchid Society, as I did have church clothes, a few and cocktail dresses, then I was married to a musician and went to the gigs with him. And LOL, I still think cocktail dresses are prettier than the work day clothes.
Yes, all outfits were better designed in the old days, and I have boxes of dress patterns from then that will prove it.